Last DMD made me truly breathless -- for the wrong reasons

[Gregor Richards]

Though it creates fanciful bootstrapping issues, it's certainly 
possible. If I added a 'dmd' package, one could download just DSSS (with 
no compiler at all), and it would run a script (presumably not written 
in D :) ) which would download and install DMD.

In fact, I've already done this for GDC (though it's mostly only useful 
for upgrading, as its script /is/ written in D)

  - Gregor Richards

Jesse Phillips wrote:
> DSSS would make a good distro for dmd/build. May not be feasible now,
> but some day.
> 
> Georg Wrede wrote:
> 
>>My experiences last night
>>
>>
>>I've been doing production work in D for some six months now. Therefore
>>I have been a bit reluctant to actually download the latest versions for
>>testing, we've settled on 0.166 on Linux, and want to stay with it for
>>some time past D 1.0.
>>
>>Yesterday I couldn't resist, so I installed .174 on my w2k laptop -- and
>>I was in for a major jolt:
>>
>>Idly browsing dmd/bin I found that one of the exes actually had an icon.
>>So I double-clicked it, and guess what, a simple wysiwyg GUI editor pops
>>up! Wow, now we can make simple GUI apps right out of the box! And I
>>found a small and nice text editor already configured for D there, too!
>>
>>How come I've missed the buzz? Well, I guess D development is really
>>putting on an exponential speed. Hoy contenders, resistance is futile!
>>
>>Some research this morning revealed the day-after: I must have
>>downloaded DFL in the spring and forgotten to erase the dm and dmd
>>hierarchies before unzipping. Oh well, it's the small things, like always.
>>
>>
>>Some observations
>>
>>While I actually believed I was using this "shrink-wrap-DMD", I had
>>several different feelings about it:
>>
>> - wow, D is leaping forward -- where will we be in six months?!!
>> - unfair to only provide GUI stuff for Windows
>> - later it felt ok, since most D users are on Windows anyway
>> - Walter's really out to impress the crap out of folks
>>
>>After my bitter fall to ground, I felt:
>>
>> - why not?
>> - some freebies in there make it feel polished, and "bigger"
>> - ok, it's not Eclipse, but it could be touted as "a largish example"
>> - OTOH, it must be awkward for Digital Mars:
>>    - quality issues
>>    - rights issues
>>    - the hassle, maintenance, support...
>>    - uncertainty about continued support from the app authors
>>    - upgrades syncing, especially waiting for the apps to catch up!
>>    - fighting with folks about who's stuff to include
>>
>>
>>Things learned
>>
>>Obviously Walter can't be burdened with all this. So, what's left?
>>IMHO, we could re-examine the idea about there being "D distros".
>>
>>We could have a few distros, each trying to be more user friendly, more
>>outa-the-zip usable, and later distros for specific things, like games
>>development, office stuff development, systems stuff, etc. If Linux
>>seems to prosper with it, then I see no reason why D couldn't.
>>
>>The DMD license could deny charging for such distros. At the same time
>>the text would recommend contacting DM, "for very reasonable deals" on
>>for-profit distribution, including book-sleeve CDs.
>>
>>This way Walter could concentrate on exactly what he's doing right now,
>>and what he's better at than anybody else: rocketing D to places where
>>no language has gone!